This is a guest blog post by a student who attended this years Peace Research course at the International Summer School 2016. This summer we witnessed a wave of terrorist attacks all around the world, from peaceful European cities to historically insecure cities in Middle East. While the increasing number of lone wolves has made… Read more »
Author: Martin Tegnander
Beyond Recognition to One, Ethical Reassurance to Many
An award can be backward or forward looking; this year’s Nobel Peace Prize is both. By awarding this prize in a moment of crisis for the Colombian peace process, it not only serves as a recognition of past efforts made by individuals, but also rescues an agonizing process and truly encourages further collective efforts for… Read more »
An Impossible Peace
The FARC and the Colombian government deserved to share this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Unfortunately, however, the prize was awarded to only one party. In general we are idiots if we let political correctness govern our views about how the world works. We confuse facts with latent sympathies – a widespread form of intellectual dishonesty,… Read more »
White Helmets in the Dark Night
In the long dark night that is the Syrian nightmare, the White Helmets have become the only ray of light. In an earlier PRIO blog post, Erica Chenoweth observed that “there are really two types of Nobel Peace Prize Laureates – elites (or elite-led institutions) and ordinary people.” This year, for example, the Colombian nominees… Read more »
Svetlana Gannushkina – A Worthy Nobel Laureate
– Svetlana Alekseevna! A young Syrian man comes running towards Svetlana Alekseevna Gannushkina in the winter cold of the asylum reception center in Kirkenes, Northern Norway. – How are you doing? So glad to see you here after all these weeks since we met in Moscow, he smiles. – Ahmed, Gannushkina smiles back – how… Read more »
An Alarm from Aleppo
At dawn on 23 September, Syrian and Russian fighter jets roared over eastern Aleppo, bringing new death and destruction to the city’s besieged inhabitants. The attacks followed several days of relative quiet, but the ensuing days and nights were worse than ever. The chaos makes it difficult to determine exactly how many were killed, but… Read more »
In War, Not All Violence is Equal
The use of military force may reduce killings, but not necessarily sexual violence. On 19 June this year, the UN marked the very first International Day for the Elimination of Sexual Violence in Conflict. Meanwhile, women and men continue to be subjected to sexual violence on a daily basis in several of the wars taking… Read more »
Political Defeat – Military Inadequacy! The Swaddling Blanket of Intervention
The military interventions by the West in the Middle East, Afghanistan and North Africa in recent years are examples of bold and efficient use of force resulting in immediate achievement of goals. Saddam Hussein’s military forces were defeated, the Taliban were deprived of their havens and possible massacres in Libya were prevented. The attempts however… Read more »
Brought Up to Be a War Criminal
Dominic Ongwen has been charged with committing the same crimes that were committed against him as a child soldier in the Lord’s Resistance Army. To what extent is Ongwen responsible for his actions as an adult, given that he himself was abducted as a 10-year-old child? The International Criminal Court in The Hague is to… Read more »
Can an Economic Boom Ensure Peaceful Elections in Côte d’Ivoire?
On Oct. 25, Ivorians head to the polls for their first presidential election since the disputed 2010 election that left more than 3,000 dead and more than 500,000 displaced. Despite the previous electoral violence and a decade of civil war and political turmoil from 2000-2010, most discussion before this election has been about the country’s… Read more »